Tuesday 22 August 2017

Mystery macro

As expected, a better catch last night (i.e. 21st August) in our garden in Wolvercote, Oxfordshire, with some nice NFYs, including Old Lady and an undoubted, but perhaps rather late Leopard Moth. I also had what looks like the same mystery Phyllonorycter as Andrew Kershaw, below - for the record, I've posted my photo of it here, but I'm sure it's the same species.

Phyllonorycter sp., c.4mm, 21/8/17
However, the moth below has had me scratching my head a great deal. It looks easy to ID, but nothing I've come up with has quite fit (I've considered Fern, some sort of hook-tip, Scarce Tissue - entirely the wrong time of year - or some sort of pug, but I don't think any of those is right). As ever, very grateful for any suggestions - I don't doubt it'll turn out to be something blindingly obvious.

Unknown macro, 21/8/17
Steve Goddard

3 comments:

  1. Never seen one but it looks like a Gem?

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  2. Steve, you give no indication of wing length for your macro and the species you say you've looked at have a vast difference in sizes. I'd say that was a male Gem which is quite a small moth. I'd need to see a better image of the Phyllonorycter. It is a fairly distinctive one but there are two or three to choose between.

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  3. Thanks, both: Dave, I'm afraid I didn't get to photo the individual beside a ruler before it flew; but one of my reasons for rejecting Fern, and for thinking it might be puggish, was that it was looked too small for Fern, and about the right size for a pug species. I do have a few other photos of it, though I don't think they reveal any significantly different features; I'm inclined to think that Gem is quite a strong probability.

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